Qualcomm

I think at this point, we have made our opinions clear on Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 – we love it. We think every phone should have either this or some other form of quick charging. Wireless charging is still a really handy feature, but I would much rather be able to charge my phone in a shorter amount of time, or at least give it a burst of juice in a couple of minutes, than be able to lay it down on a charging pad that likely charges slower than a conventional charger.

To demonstrate the power of Quick Charge 2.0, Qualcomm put together the video featured below, which includes three Nexus 6 phones, all of which are using a different charger. Two of the phones are using conventional chargers (5 volts/1 amp and 5 volts/2 amps), while one uses Motorola’s Turbo Charger. You probably don’t need to watch the video to know who wins the battle to 50% from 0%. (more…)

Now that we have passed the Galaxy S6 unveiling from Samsung, it is official that the Korea-based company opted to use in-house Exynos silicon to power its two newest flagship devices, instead of contracting out the job to San Diego-based Qualcomm for its Snapdragon 810 chipset.

What makes the situation important were the early reports that devices running the Snapdragon 810 were seeing overheating issues, with LG coming right out and denying the reports completely. However, whatever the case may be, Qualcomm lost its chance to power the newest Samsung devices, and now we are left with a new 64-bit octa-core Exynos processor inside both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. (more…)

Exciting mobile news from MWC is over pouring, and today, Qualcomm took the lid off of its Zeroth Platform, enabled by the Snapdragon 820. While just the announcement of the name is pretty good, Qualcomm does not dive too deep into the SoC, instead optioning for a few general pieces of information, along with details for the Zeroth platform.

From what Qualcomm did say, the Snapdragon 820 is built on a FinFET process, which could be either TSMC’s 16nm or Samsung’s 14nm process. Continuing, the company also introduced its new custom ARMv8 CPU core, named Kryo. (more…)

Cyanogen and Qualcomm announced a new collaboration during MWC this week, which will focus on highlighting select features and user interface improvements in select upcoming Snapdragon-powered devices. To be exact, Cyanogen’s launcher application and personal information management apps across dialer, messaging, contacts, and calendar are included in this partnership. (more…)

The short Vine shows a shadowed phone in the background, fronted by a clock that starts at 8:10, then transitions to 10:08 before turning over one minute to 10:09. The “8:10″ here means Snapdragon 810, the “10:08″ is the clock seen on all HTC press renders, and the flip over to 10:09 has to stand for the 9 in HTC One M9. (more…)

Back in January, I expressed my love for Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology that allows you to charge your phone at pretty insane speeds when compared to your typical USB charger. The technology has been made famous by Motorola within the last year, thanks to their use of it as a selling feature in the new Moto X, DROID Turbo, and Nexus 6. They are also selling a $35 Turbo Charger that can give your phone hours of use in just a few minutes time. But Quick Charge 2.0 is in more than Motorola devices. In fact, the HTC One (M8) from early last year has it, as does the Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact, and Galaxy Note 4. That’s right, most of the popular phones released within the last year have the technology built in.

Unfortunately, most official OEM Quick Charge 2.0 chargers aren’t cheap, so many of you have avoided buying any. Like I mentioned, Motorola sells their Turbo Charger for a whopping $35, but HTC also has a quick charge adapter that runs $35 too.

If you want a lower cost charger, you currently have to turn to places like Amazon. There are a handful of third party accessory makers now making Quick Charge 2.0 adapters, one of which is Tenergy, who just so happens to be hosting a Lightning deal over at Amazon at the moment. For just $12.99, you can grab yourself a Quick/Turbo charger and realize why I think it’s the future of charging.

This morning, Qualcomm announced four new Snapdragon processors, made specifically for those new to smartphones and in emerging markets, but that smartphone enthusiasts can appreciate as well. More precisely, we have the Snapdragon 415, 425, 618, and 620. (more…)

What happens when a multi-billion dollar company loses its biggest customer and has to adjust its earnings for the 2nd half of a year? Apparently, they turn to all their much smaller, aren’t-going-anywhere-because-we-can’t customers for uplifting quotes on why their product is still the best! With Samsung deciding to pass on the Snapdragon 810 (for who knows what real reasons), companies like LG, Motorola, Xiaomi, Sony, and Oppo have come out in support of the new chip, along with an assurance from Qualcomm that 60 “premium tier” mobile devices will hit the streets in the coming weeks and months with the 810 inside. (more…)

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